


How Can I Save A Fallen Angel?

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Series: Not-Quite-A-Warlock [6]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Clave bashing, Descriptions of dead children, Descriptions of mutilated children, Immortal Alec Lightwood, This One Is Dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 00:03:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14758820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: In which Magnus realizes his angel is fallen, and he makes a decision





	How Can I Save A Fallen Angel?

**Author's Note:**

> This one is a dark one guys. 
> 
> I was planning on reunions with the Fam, but the way things are going, that may not happen... or it may not happen the way everyone would hope... 
> 
> Aglæca: Anglo-Saxon, means monster, fiend, demon, fierce combatant, fierce enemy, fighter, etc.

  _How do you stay so strong?_  
_How did you hide it all for so long?_  
_How can I take the pain away?_  
_How can I save,_

_A fallen angel, in the dark._  
_Never thought you'd fall so far,_  
_Fallen angel, close your eyes,_  
_I won't let you fall tonight._  
_Fallen angel._  
~Fallen Angel, Three Days Grace

* * *

“What are you going to tell them?” Magnus asks, as he watches Alec debate repeatedly the merits of reuniting with his family.

“If I go through with a reunion.” Alec answers, before heaving a heavy sigh. “Just that I ran afoul of one of Valentine’s zealots, that they de-runed me, experimented on me, and that because of that I can’t be a Shadowhunter anymore, but that they made me something they underestimated, and I escaped.”

“You’re going to lie?” Magnus exclaims in surprise, “Alec, they’re your family.”

“I’ve lived through generation after generation of my family murdering Downworlders for looking at them wrong. Just a few years ago, Jace was all for tagging Downworlders with GPS chips, like animals. _I_ thought there was nothing wrong with creating a DNA database of the Downworlders, even told you not to make it a big deal. I kept a secret from you that could have seen you dead. I almost helped to murder you in cold blood.” Alec pauses, takes a breath in, lets it out slowly. “Over the last few hundred years, I’ve made a habit of murdering Shadowhunters, Magnus. They’ll have a file on me somewhere in their archive, if I give them enough hints, they’ll figure it out, link him to me and then they’ll come for me.”

“You can’t know that. Izzy is head of the Institute, she wouldn’t allow-“

“I do know that. You’d know that, too, if you knew me, the man I have become.”

“So, tell me.” Magnus pleads, reaching out to take Alec’s hands in his own. “You said you haven’t gone by Alec in a long time, I’m not stupid, I know that means you have another name, a name you’ve been very careful to not let slip, which means it is a name I will recognize.”

“I’ve had countless names over the ages, most of them have been lost to time, not even I remember them. But the name I’ve gone by since the 5th century is one the mundanes of the time chose for me, that the Warlock’s adopted and decided fit, so I shed my old name and took that one up instead.” Alec answers, clearly reluctant to even speak.

“And what was it?” Magnus asks, fear and apprehension gripping him.

“Aglæca.” Alec whispers, Magnus lets out a gasp, releases Alec’s hands and stumbles backwards, Alec turns away. “I told you, when you asked why I stayed away, that you might not love me anymore. I was being selfish staying away, and I was selfish coming back.” Alec takes a very deep breath in, lets it out slowly and starts walking to the door. “I would appreciate it if you’ll keep your word, and not shut Magna out.” The Not-Warlock says, his hand on the door, when Magnus throws up his wards.

“Stop, I didn’t tell you to go.”

“Yeah, but your body language right now says you don’t want me to stay.” Alec snaps, turning on his heel to glare at his once-again-lover.

“It’s not… I just need…”

“Time, you need time, so let me leave, and you can have all the time in the world.”

“No, because I’m fairly certain that I’ll never see you again if I let you out that door.” Magnus answers, trying to swallow his own anger and hurt.

“You’re probably not wrong.” Alec replies, shrugging his shoulders. “Not that you could keep me if I wanted to leave.” Alec says, and with a flick of his wrist, all of Magnus’ wards fall for a split second, before re-establishing themselves with a wave of Alec’s hand.

“I-If there was a Warlock king, it’d be you.” Magnus whispers, like even he can’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, Alec frowns at him.

“You really are young, aren’t you?” Alec tells him with a bitter little laugh, and Magnus can’t hide the hurt that he feels at the words. “I have been crowned at least thirty-four times. Each time in a different location, and in a different age. In 1109, I was offered the crown again for the last time, the Warlocks were desperate, the Shadowhunters had decided that anything demonic had to be destroyed. The warlocks of the time sought me out, begged me on their knees to take up the crown, and fight for them, again. I refused. I told them I would fight at their side, but I would not be king. I told them I could not accept their crown, when it was I who brought this new horror on all of us, when I was the one who summoned Raziel. So, we fought side by side, and we had the victory, and I disappeared back into the passing of time, called forth every now and then to beat back the Shadowhunters, until, well until Magna. They called for me, and I never answered, and by the time I could be bothered getting back into the politics of the Downworld, the Accords had struck, and so I stayed in the shadows.”

“But you weren’t forgotten.” Magnus answers, his glamour having fallen from his eyes. “Even now, Warlock children are taught of Aglæca, our War-Master. There’s whispers that if he had answered the call, Warlock’s would never have signed the Accords, we’d have beaten the Shadowhunters back, and gone on to live as we wanted, as we always had. It was always us and the Seelie who were for the most part untouched by Shadowhunter egos.”

“I know. My minions have been moving in the shadows these last few years, sometime soon, there’s going to be a revolution. Áine has already withdrawn from the Accords, and soon so shall the Warlocks. I haven’t told you, because you’ve got Shadowhunter friends now, because of me. You’ll have to pick a side, eventually, I’m hoping you’ll pick mine, but I’ll understand if you don’t. I have been gone for five years, after all, you don’t really know me anymore.”

“This is what you’ve been in secret talks with people about, this is what you Áine discuss, this is where you’ve been disappearing off to.” Magnus exclaims, horrified. “Alexander, you’re planning a _war!”_

“Not a war. The Shadowhunters will keep their little mitts out of Warlock business, or I’ll have your father remove them as an issue.” Alec replies, nonchalant. “He took my runes off me, he can do the same to them, and we’ll be back where the world was a thousand years ago. Just us, the mundanes, and the occasional demon. The world survived for _thousands_ of years without Shadowhunters, Magnus. They could be _incredible,_ but they think they’re God, and can do whatever they want. Any breach in the Accords, ‘oh, we’ll just cover that right up, arrest all the Downworlders involved and send them to the Gard, they’ll be dead within the month.’ I’m over it.”

“Alexander, this is serious. The Accords are the only thing keeping the vampires in line.”

“The vampires aren’t a problem. In olden times, we’d police them by poisoning their food supply. They go crazy, we slip some verbena into the local water supply, and bam, every single vampire who preys on mundanes gets sick, and the humans just get a little bit of flavoured water. Of course, Vlad is also gallivanting about, debating the merits of taking control again. I’m sure he’d be happy to break his people from the Accords, which would just leave the werewolves, and they have the Praetor to police them. So what good are the Shadowhunters, really?”

“They are needed to fight the demons, that’s the whole reason they were created.”

“Then they should have stuck to that, should have kept their sticky little fingers out of everyone else’s pies.” Alec retorts, without hesitation, a great coldness in his voice.

“What did they do, to you?” Magnus asks, Alec’s entire body tenses, before he slowly raises his head, angry eyes locking onto Magnus’.

“Who says they did anything?”

“You hate them, Alec. You hate them in a way not even I hate them, and they’ve taken many things from me. You hate them in a way you didn’t even hate Valentine, didn't even hate _Lilith_. What. Did. They. Do?” In answer, Alec throws a crystal ball into the air, so alike to Magna’s but so different, the ball shoots across the room and shatters against Magnus’ chest, but before he can say anything, the world around him swirls, until he’s standing outside a cheerful little building, and someone walks right through him.

* * *

_“I’m going destroy the lot of them.” A familiar voice exclaims from somewhere inside the building. “I’m going to tear them to pieces!!”_

_“Agl_ _æca, stop, think about this.” An unfamiliar woman states, sharply, voice unwavering. “Think. If you go after them now, you destroy your own timeline, you will_ never _see_ him _again, because the man you fell in love with will not exist, he will be someone different, if he even survives the war.”_

_“Look at what they did, Ro. How can he be more important than they are?” Alec asks, and Magnus feels a sharp pain in his chest. He finds courage somewhere within him and pushes through the door, coming to a stop just beyond the threshold at he takes in the sight. Bodies strewn across the floor, children. Warlocks. Some with eyes torn out, some with limbs torn off, some with stumps where horns once held pride of place, some with skin flayed. This is a nightmare._

_“Because they are already gone, nothing you do from now on will bring them back, but he is still out there, still on his path to meeting you. You cannot sacrifice the living, to avenge the dead.”_

_“I’m going to destroy them. If not today, then one day, far into the future, I’ll destroy them. I promise it.”_

_“I know, honey. And I’ll do my best to be right there with you, but for today_ , for today _we will live and relocate, and we will grow stronger. We will learn from the mistakes we made here, and one day, we’re going to make the Clave pay for_ every. Single. One. Of. Us _.” Magnus can’t even look up, can’t even find the strength to seek out Alec and his companion, instead, he’s stuck, rooted to the spot, staring at the bodies of the young of his kind, those who died horrible, painful, pointless deaths._

 _“I summon thee, Asmodeus.”_ That _catches Magnus’ attention, and he looks up, just in time for his father to appear before Alec, and his mysterious female companion, that’s when Magnus notes that both of them, Alec and his companion, have tears streaming unchecked down their faces._

_“Agl_ _æca.” Asmodeus greets, a fond smile on his face._

_“Where is he?”_

_“How am I to know?” Asmodeus asks, glancing around himself, a frown forming when he sees all the children._

_“You’re going to find him, take care of him. Because if he’s not alive when I go to meet him, I’m going to come for you, and I’ll throw everything Heta ever taught me at you, I’m sure something in her repertoire will hurt even you. Maybe I’ll even summon her, you know how much she loved him. Her little Bane.” Alec states, his voice far more steady than is to be expected in the circumstances._

_“Now, now, there’s no need to be hasty, I’ll go find the little one.” Asmodeus says, seeming to blow away on the wind._

_“Will he thank you for that, you think?” the woman asks, turning to Alec with a raised eyebrow._

_“I don’t care. If they hurt him, I’ll make sure to send each and everyone of them to hell, personally.”_

_“As always, it’s my honour to serve you, War-Master.” The woman says, bowing her head. “Now, come along, Fitz will be waiting for us, and Lina is waiting in the shadows to see to the Rights.” She says, gently taking Alec’s arm and pulling him away, a portal forming in front of her with a flick of her wrist._

_“I will destroy them.” Alec promises one last time, before he steps into the portal, and the room swirls, fades away, and Magnus is once more in his loft._

* * *

He takes a deep, stuttering breath in, tears streaming down his face as the reality of what he witnessed hits him and he falls to his knees. He’d known such things happened, but he’d never witnessed them. Never saw one personally, and the Accords had put a stop to all of that.

“Alec.” He calls, his voice broken, and his eyes too blurred with tears to be able to see. Gentle hands appear on his shoulders, holding him steady.

“You need to stop asking questions you don’t like the answers to.” Alec whispers into his ear, before pulling him into a hug. “I’m going to keep my promise, either in this lifetime, or the next, the Clave will be destroyed. Whether there are Shadowhunters left when I’m finished to build something new, well, that’s up to them.” Alec promises, quiet and dangerous. Magnus clings to him, hands clenching Alec’s shirt like a lifeline, tears slipping unchecked down his face.

“I’ll help.” He says, his voice firm despite his raging emotions.

“Thank you.”

* * *

 

 

_You do it all for my own protection._  
_You make me feel like I'll be okay._  
_Still I have so many questions,_

_How do you stay so strong?_  
_How did you hide it all for so long?_  
_How can I take the pain away?_  
_How can I save a fallen angel?_  
~Fallen Angel, Three Days Grace

**Author's Note:**

> In canon, there's a disputed theory that a Warlock summoned Raziel to the create the first Shadowhunters, not Johnathan. 
> 
> Verbena: Vervain, considered to be a 'holy plant' since it's said to have staunched Jesus' wounds when he was removed from the cross. In this verse, the Downworlders have just kept it a tightly guarded secret from the Shadowhunters that it's a weakness for vampires.
> 
> The children were mutilated for their marks, to be kept as 'spoils', if you did not figure that out.


End file.
